Database Info

Testing ROM Images in the SDK Emulator!

I started looking at Android Development and got the whole Dev kit and the Eclipse enrionment setup and working fine.
The question I have is that I would try different apps I develop on the different ROMs available.
How do I get any of the new ROMs, like the HERO ROM ZIP files I can download to run in the emulator or is it even possible?
Im assuming that the system.img file in the SDK id the file I need to replace or re-create, but how is this done?
I am a noob to the develop stuff so step by step instructions would be much appreciated.
I also think this would be great for other developers and ROM makers to be able to test in this way.
Thanks
Simon

Hopefully THIS one dont get closed, it IS asking a development question...anyway,
I would like to know this as well. I would like to test things myself (getting better at manipulating them), and would like to know what he is asking as well.
Thanks.

I don't think this would work, as the ROMs are hardware depending, me thinks. Or at the least the kernel and drivers are.

maybe this will help, maybe not, just an emulator primer, so maybe people can jump on board with this
under <sdk path>/tools
to list out your AVD(android virtual device)
android list targets
will return:
Available Android targets:
id:1
Name: Android 1.1
Type: platform
API level: 2
Skins: HVGA (default), HVGA-L, HVGA-P, QVGA-L, QVGA-P
id:2
Name: Android 1.5
Type: platform
API level: 3
Skins: HVGA (default), HVGA-L, HVGA-P, QVGA-L, QVGA-P
id:3
Name: Google APIs
Type: add-on
Vendor: Google Inc.
Description: Android + Google APIs
Based on Android 1.5 (API level 3)
Libraries:
* com.google.android.maps (maps.jar)
API for Google Maps
Skins: HVGA (default), HVGA-L, QVGA-P, HVGA-P, QVGA-L
from here we choose our integer target, lets say 2
creating an AVD:
android create avd -n your_chosen_name_here -t 2
When you create an AVD, the android tool creates a dedicated directory for it on your development computer. The directory contains the AVD configuration file, the user data image and SD card image (if available), and any other files associated with the device. Note that the directory does not contain a system image — instead, the AVD configuration file contains a mapping to the system image, which it loads when the AVD is launched.
By default, the android tool creates the AVD directory inside ~/.android/avd/ (on Linux/Mac), C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\.android\ on Windows XP, and C:\Users\<user>\.android\ on Windows Vista
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
to run your newly created AVD:
emulator -avd your_chosen_name_here
maybe this will help, but I'm guessing everyone here already knows all of this.
references:
http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/emulator.html#starting

Yeah, I understand that you can specify the AVD.
The only thing now is to edit the AVD to point to a different image. This is easy!
The system image file is a *.img file.
So how do we get our ROM images compiled into the IMG file format?
There must be a tool, but I cant find anything.
And what hardware does the emulator, emulate? Maybe it ignores the hardware specific calls throu an API so the ROM image target hardware shouldn't matter.

I just started messing around with rom's and after I build one I put system.img userdata.img and ramdisk.img from my /mydroid/out folder into the sdk's image folder and start the and it uses the new rom when I start the emulator

thats the easy part
do a nandroid backup
copy the sdk/platforms/android-1.5
to something like sdk/platforms/MINE
go to your AVD directory AVD/whateveryoucalledit
open up the config.ini
edit:
skin.name=HVGA
skin.path=platforms\MINE\skins\HVGA
image.sysdir.1=platforms\MINE\images\
go to your nandroid backup on your sdcard
copy system.img
go to sdk/platforms/MINE/images/
and paste the nandroid system.img
now run your AVD and it will boot that system.img
im running CyanogenMod rom right now in the emulator
hint* number pad 7 with numlock off in the emulator is how to open up the hardware keyboard

Awesome. I'll be giving this a try later.
One question: The apps are in the system.img file on the SDK images as far as I can tell. What do you do with all the apps in the new ROMs?

whatever you want to do with them, they're all there, even android market works perfectly

And where are you guys getting the system.img file from?
The ROM zip files dont have them.
Sorry....Im noob to this. LOL

ggolemg said:
whatever you want to do with them, they're all there, even android market works perfectly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, Im confused. Can you just unzip the ROM files and place in the folder that you point using the same folder structure?
OR
Do you have to have a system.img ?

Another thought:
I dont want to have to install all the ROMs just to create a Nandroid backup to get the images. There must be a way to create the images from the raw files in the ZIP files.
Any ideas?
UPDATE: The same technology used by Nandroid itself!

The google android emulator included in the google android sdk is limited. Although you can use 'adb push' to upload more tools, but one has to do it again next time. Follow the steps to create a enhanced system.img:
1. system.img is yaffs2 flash file system, so firstly you need the mkfs.yaffs2 tool, download it in the following link: Release Android Yaffs2 Tool (Both X86 And ARM). One has to be a registered user to download the tools.
2. use the 'adb push' to upload tools to android emulator, executables in /system/bin/, libraries in /system/lib, one can also create folder. One need change the file mode necessary.
3. upload the ARM mkfs.yaffs2 tool, use the following command to create system.img: # mkfs.yaffs2 /system /system.img
4. download the system.img to local with command 'adb pull', replace the system.img in your emulator folder/tools/lib/images/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so it seems like it would be just as much fun doing a nandroid backup
*edit*
so now the real question is, how do we go about ripping out the nandroid functionality to be able to do this locally?
*edit 2*
it is the mkfs.yaffs2 tool
Usage:
mkfs.yaffs2 yourdir yourimage
Ohsaka said:
NANDROID - CYGWIN DIRECTIONS (not not not, I repeat, not fully tested and verified yet)
Changes so far if you are using cygwin:
1) Make sure you have the 'netcat' and 'gcc' packages, else just run cygwin.exe again and get them.
You can test if you have them by running 'which nc' and 'which gcc', both commands should return /usr/bin/<command>
2) Compile the mkyaffs2image executable.
Inside the extracted nandroid archive directory, goto the tartools\yaffs2\utils\ directory (inside a cygwin prompt) and type 'make'.
This should generate a file named "mkyaffs2image.exe" which you need to place somewhere on your path.
(Hint: If you haven't downloaded the Android SDK, abort now. Wait for more explicit directions... Else, place the .exe where adb is, since it should be on your path already)
3) Edit the nandroid.sh script. (else you get a permission denied error when the script tries to run the dump_image-arm file)
Find the line:
adb push ./$tool /cache/$tool
Add the following line after it:
adb shell chmod 777 /cache/$tool
4) Make a managed mount named /tmp (else windows will puke on the long unix filenames with colons, etc)
mkdir /tmp
mount -o managed c:/cygwin/tmp /tmp (Note: change c:/cygwin to be the directory cygwin was installed to, you can find it by typing 'cd /' and then 'explorer .')
5) Follow the standard "tar + mkyaffs2image" directions to generate the last three .img files. They refer to the /tmp directory which you created in the previous step.
Viola! Looks like I have a complete backup image now...
$ ls -l
total 117504
-rw-r--r-- 1 Osaka None 2621440 Jun 12 21:31 boot.img
-rw------- 1 Osaka None 737088 Jun 12 22:07 cache.img
-rw------- 1 Osaka None 53570880 Jun 12 22:06 data.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 Osaka None 262144 Jun 12 21:31 misc.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 Osaka None 5242880 Jun 12 21:31 recovery.img
-rw------- 1 Osaka None 57885696 Jun 12 22:06 system.img
Now I just need to drink up the courage to test it on my phone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

ggolemg said:
so it seems like it would be just as much fun doing a nandroid backup
*edit*
so now the real question is, how do we go about ripping out the nandroid functionality to be able to do this locally?
*edit 2*
it is the mkfs.yaffs2 tool
Usage:
mkfs.yaffs2 yourdir yourimage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this for Linux (which I don't have) and if so, is there a Windows version?

short answer: yes its only for linux
long answer is a plea for help i posted in the nandroid thread about it:
I was wondering if there was a method to use the yaffs3 command to make a system.img from an unzipped rom placed on the sdcard through ADB, from what I've seen nandroid is almost exactly what I'm after.
The issue of why I can not just do this through linux, i can. I just want to be able to do it through windows some way without loading the entire rom on the phone and nandroiding the system.img out.
Either the aforementioned method, or the ability to mount a portion of my computers hard drive as a recognizable mountable partition within android running on the usb connected phone, loading the rom on that partition, unzipping it there, running ADB and making the system.img. But this way seems to bring up more problems than it's worth.
Or.. running the make yaffs3 command through ADB running the emulator with the rom unzipped on the virtual sdcard. This would actually be the best option as it would not require an actual phone.
I hope someone can help. Thank you very much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hopefully someone knows the answer, I'm still trying though.
so on windows we would adb push the update.zip to the sdcard on the emulator
unzip it on the sdcard, there are apps for that
adb shell mkfs.yaffs2 sdcard/<extractedzipfilename>/system/ sdcard/system.img
adb pull the newly created system.img and proceed to load it in the emulator
i know im missing a ton here, please someone correct me

I'd love to be able to run these images in the emulator on windows!

ggolemg said:
thats the easy part
do a nandroid backup
copy the sdk/platforms/android-1.5
to something like sdk/platforms/MINE
go to your AVD directory AVD/whateveryoucalledit
open up the config.ini
edit:
skin.name=HVGA
skin.path=platforms\MINE\skins\HVGA
image.sysdir.1=platforms\MINE\images\
go to your nandroid backup on your sdcard
copy system.img
go to sdk/platforms/MINE/images/
and paste the nandroid system.img
now run your AVD and it will boot that system.img
im running CyanogenMod rom right now in the emulator
hint* number pad 7 with numlock off in the emulator is how to open up the hardware keyboard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm, the emulator just hangs on the ANDROID.. message, similar to when the standard system.img was in.

anyone figure out how to do this on a mac?
thanks if anyone can.

johnnylicious said:
anyone figure out how to do this on a mac?
thanks if anyone can.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found this somewhere else and take no credit for it. I did shorten the steps.
Of course this is once you have the sdk installed on your mac
1. Run Terminal, and change to the 'tools' directory of the SDK (or add the tools directory to the path settings in ~/.profile).
2. Type './android list target'
3. Note the 'id' number of the '1.5' target (in my case it's '2')
4. Type './android create avd -n enhanced -t 2' (substitute 2 with the target number determined above if required)
5. You will be prompted to create a hardware profile. {You can leave as default no}
6. Use nandroid to create a backup then copy system.img
7. Copy file to ~/.android/avd/enhanced.avd/system.img
8. You're ready! Type './emulator -avd enhanced' to run! Note: inital boot may take a few minutes!

Can anyone post up the
Android Yaffs2 Tool (Both X86 And ARM)
for download? The above link doesn't work. I did a google search and all the D/L links are referring to the same location.
thanks!

[GUIDE] How to create a your own ROM

How to create your own ROM update.zip for the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G
Things you will need to perform this:
Java SE Dev Kit from Sun. java.sun.com
May need Cygwin with zlib0 package, from cygwin.com
This will give you Android 1.6 with all the Google applications, Root access.
I never found one place where all this information is all together, so that is why I compiled this together.
Now anyone can do this themselves.
Thanks to all the hard work others have done before this.
1.
First Root your phone and install a new Recovery image, either Amon Ra or Cyanogens Recovery image.
Instructions for one-click root: http://theunlockr.com/2009/08/22/how-to-root-the-mytouch-3g-or-g1-in-one-click/
2.
Download the Android 1.6 System image from
http://developer.htc.com/google-io-device.html
extract the contents of signed-google_ion-img-14721.zip.
3.
You now need to extract the contents of system.img using a tool called unyaffs. The source code is here:
http://code.google.com/p/unyaffs/downloads/list
Or download a prebuilt win32 version here.
http://jiggawatt.org/badc0de/android/index.html
Note you may also need cygwin1.dll and cygz.dll (zlib0 package). Found at cygwin.com
Of course if you already have Cygwin installed with the GCC packages, you can just compile it yourself. Then also
if you comment out the line 67 to "// symlink(oh->alias, full_path_name);"
then it will not create the copies of the symbolic link file, and you will not have to worry about deleting duplicate
symbolic link files later.
Now in the directory where system.img exists, create a new directory called "system"
go into the "system" directory.
type the following command:
unyaffs ..\system.img
That should extract all the files from the system.img file into the system directory.
4.
Now we just need to clean up some items. Since the system.img is a linux file system, it has symbolic
links built into it, but when we extracted it, it just created duplicate files, if you used the prebuilt unyaffs.exe.
So we can just delete the duplicates and have a script recreate the symlink on install.
So we need to delete some extra files from the system\bin directory.
Run the attached DeleteExtras.bat file from the same directory where system.img is in.
If you notice, all the files it deletes are 28 byte files, and if you open them in notepad only contain:
"!<symlink>toolbox..."
And we will remake the symbolic link when it is installed.
5.
Now from the directory where the system.img is, enter the following commands
mkdir META-INF
mkdir META-INF\com
mkdir META-INF\com\google
mkdir META-INF\com\google\android
Now copy the included file "update-script.txt" into the "META-INF\com\google\android" directory
and RENAME it to just "update-script".
This update-script gets run to recreate the symbolic links.
Not sure if these two are needed but they are in some custom ROMs here:
Copy the two files "fix_permissions" and "flash_image" to the "system\bin" directory.
6.
-- Optional --
These add root and Superuser access to the ROM, plus the Terminal Emulator application.
Copy the file "su" from Cyanogen's rom to the folder "system\bin"
Copy the file "Superuser.apk" to the folder "system\app"
Copy the file "Term.apk" to the folder "system\app"
You can also replace the "system\etc\apns-conf.xml" with a more complete one from here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=547718
or here
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZNbAmKkmakoZGZxZHNwMnpfMjJkaHg3ejN3eg&hl=en
Turn data roaming off by default by editing line in the build.prop file:
ro.com.android.dataroaming=false
Also to fix the Market program to show "Protected" applications change the ro.build.fingerprint line to the following:
ro.build.fingerprint=tmobile/opal/sapphire/sapphire:1.5/COC10/150449:user/ota-rel-keys,release-keys
Only phones with a fingerprint of a "released" device can access some market applications.
--------------
7.
Now we just need to create a ZIP file for the final ROM
Zip up the following file and two folders:
boot.img
META-INF
system
8.
Now sign the zip file.
See here how to sign a ZIP file for flashing it.
http://androidforums.com/developer-101/8665-how-signing-roms.html
9.
Copy it to your SD card, boot into recovery, wipe, apply the update, Reboot.
You are now running Android 1.6!

the finger print is found in build.prop is this correct and what app do you use to edit your build.prop

Yes the fingerprint is in build.prop
Make sure to use an advanced text editor like TextPad, UltraEdit, or EditPlus. It has to handle UNIX text files.
Also use this for the update_script.

how abt kernel parameters?

How would one go about customizing this with Hero? Or is that not possible at this point?

detox702 said:
How would one go about customizing this with Hero? Or is that not possible at this point?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would like more info on hot to incorporate senseui

Thanks for sharing... Got nothing to do today, so I experimented on my phone... I gotta say, I'm pretty amazed w/ this feature. Was able to sort out and organize my files.
Kudos!

How does one create the system.img file once one has the system files...
What I want to do is use some of the custom roms here and put it on an AVD emulator system.
Can someone help with this please.
NOTE: I dont have linux. So if there is an alternative to mkbootimg, it will be excellent.

the ion is the 32b if I'm not mistaken?
Is there an image for the 32a or do we always have to use the ion and throw a patch over it?
Sorry if this is a stupid question

in step 5. it says
Not sure if these two are needed but they are in some custom ROMs here:
Copy the two files "fix_permissions" and "flash_image" to the "system\bin" directory.
Where do i copy the files from or download please?
thanks in advance
P.S. any tips on changing the splash screen would be much appreciated.

DeleteExtras.txt or DeleteExtras.bat doesn't work. I have to delete the extra files by myself - one by one.

codysoloman said:
DeleteExtras.txt or DeleteExtras.bat doesn't work. I have to delete the extra files by myself - one by one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
check this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=633246

Perhaps someone here knows or could point me to the right resources, but if the phone isn't supported by Cyanogen, how would a custom rom be made in that case?
How is a custom rom made from scratch? Since android is just linux, is it simply a matter of building it with the right drivers for the phone and installing it? How can an image be manually copied to the phone if it isn't supported by Clockwork recovery? How can it's steps be manually done?

ping pong...

Can i install my own rom on samsung ace?????

anybody knows how to make a ROM customized and make a "update.img" to run on a un-rootable device? I know when you backup a linux image for example ubuntu, this image will run on all other PCs, the image will automatically knows the new PC's drivers and adapt everything with that, is it what happening to an android too ?
---------- Post added at 08:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:33 AM ----------
and pls let me know how to open/edit a "update.img" file, thnx

Question
androidcustomrom said:
How to create your own ROM update.zip for the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G
Things you will need to perform this:
Java SE Dev Kit from Sun. java.sun.com
May need Cygwin with zlib0 package, from cygwin.com
This will give you Android 1.6 with all the Google applications, Root access.
I never found one place where all this information is all together, so that is why I compiled this together.
Now anyone can do this themselves.
Thanks to all the hard work others have done before this.
1.
First Root your phone and install a new Recovery image, either Amon Ra or Cyanogens Recovery image.
Instructions for one-click root: http://theunlockr.com/2009/08/22/how-to-root-the-mytouch-3g-or-g1-in-one-click/
2.
Download the Android 1.6 System image from
http://developer.htc.com/google-io-device.html
extract the contents of signed-google_ion-img-14721.zip.
3.
You now need to extract the contents of system.img using a tool called unyaffs. The source code is here:
http://code.google.com/p/unyaffs/downloads/list
Or download a prebuilt win32 version here.
http://jiggawatt.org/badc0de/android/index.html
Note you may also need cygwin1.dll and cygz.dll (zlib0 package). Found at cygwin.com
Of course if you already have Cygwin installed with the GCC packages, you can just compile it yourself. Then also
if you comment out the line 67 to "// symlink(oh->alias, full_path_name);"
then it will not create the copies of the symbolic link file, and you will not have to worry about deleting duplicate
symbolic link files later.
Now in the directory where system.img exists, create a new directory called "system"
go into the "system" directory.
type the following command:
unyaffs ..\system.img
That should extract all the files from the system.img file into the system directory.
4.
Now we just need to clean up some items. Since the system.img is a linux file system, it has symbolic
links built into it, but when we extracted it, it just created duplicate files, if you used the prebuilt unyaffs.exe.
So we can just delete the duplicates and have a script recreate the symlink on install.
So we need to delete some extra files from the system\bin directory.
Run the attached DeleteExtras.bat file from the same directory where system.img is in.
If you notice, all the files it deletes are 28 byte files, and if you open them in notepad only contain:
"!<symlink>toolbox..."
And we will remake the symbolic link when it is installed.
5.
Now from the directory where the system.img is, enter the following commands
mkdir META-INF
mkdir META-INF\com
mkdir META-INF\com\google
mkdir META-INF\com\google\android
Now copy the included file "update-script.txt" into the "META-INF\com\google\android" directory
and RENAME it to just "update-script".
This update-script gets run to recreate the symbolic links.
Not sure if these two are needed but they are in some custom ROMs here:
Copy the two files "fix_permissions" and "flash_image" to the "system\bin" directory.
6.
-- Optional --
These add root and Superuser access to the ROM, plus the Terminal Emulator application.
Copy the file "su" from Cyanogen's rom to the folder "system\bin"
Copy the file "Superuser.apk" to the folder "system\app"
Copy the file "Term.apk" to the folder "system\app"
You can also replace the "system\etc\apns-conf.xml" with a more complete one from here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=547718
or here
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZNbAmKkmakoZGZxZHNwMnpfMjJkaHg3ejN3eg&hl=en
Turn data roaming off by default by editing line in the build.prop file:
ro.com.android.dataroaming=false
Also to fix the Market program to show "Protected" applications change the ro.build.fingerprint line to the following:
ro.build.fingerprint=tmobile/opal/sapphire/sapphire:1.5/COC10/150449:user/ota-rel-keys,release-keys
Only phones with a fingerprint of a "released" device can access some market applications.
--------------
7.
Now we just need to create a ZIP file for the final ROM
Zip up the following file and two folders:
boot.img
META-INF
system
8.
Now sign the zip file.
See here how to sign a ZIP file for flashing it.
http://androidforums.com/developer-101/8665-how-signing-roms.html
9.
Copy it to your SD card, boot into recovery, wipe, apply the update, Reboot.
You are now running Android 1.6!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you tell me where I can correct the fake data in the phone like the real RAM is 512 MB but it say 1GB ,can you tell me how to
correct it thanks in advance:good:

[DEV-GUIDE] Flytouch 3 Superpad 2 - Custom ROM building tutorial

Dear All,
I have been building some custom Android ROMS for the past few years, and my latest toy is a Flytouch 3 I wanted to share some of my findings and methods here, perhaps other newbies like me will find it useful.
1. FT3 ROM contents:
FT3 ROMs will be in RAR or ZIP format and have 2 or 3 files in them as explained below. Just unzip or unrar the package to use them:
firmware2 - flash tool which burns the firmware ( I guess...lol)
bootloader-discovery - 7zip file which contains the bootloader
IMPORTANT! Do not flash a wrong bootloader to your device or it will be bricked! Actually this is the only way you can brick the thing, it's pretty sturdy in that sense. If you are not sure, do not copy bootloader-recovery to your sdcard when flashing, it will boot with your existing bootloader anyway.
firmware-discovery - 7zip file which contains the firmware and it's the main file you want to edit.
2. firmware-discovery contents:
This is the easy part! Modifying this file will let you modify system and data partitions. You can also use different ramdisks and kernels compatible with your device. It's a 7zip file and you can unpack and repack easily with the 7-zip file manager (http://www.7-zip.org/).
I use 7-zip on Windows although I use Ubuntu Linux as my main OS. There is something wrong with my 7-zip installation most probably, but I was too lazy to check it If you are on Windows anyway, you are good, just download and use 7-zip from the URL above. I advise that you do all your firmware-discovery editing within 7-zip file manager. That way, you won't have to worry about re-packing with the correct 7-zip settings. At least, that's how I do it and had no problems.
firmware-discovery will have these files in the 7zip package:
uImage - kernel
Very important Your kernel will make the difference between having and not having certain functionality, even if your hardware supports it.
uImage_recovery - recovery file - I beleive this is what runs when you push menu+power.
ramdisk.img - ramdisk
This is one of the interesting files you might want to play with. Ramdisk is a simple file system with some crucial files, mainly init.rc that lets you control the boot process. You can also stick a initlogo.rle image here to display a splash image in initial boot. More details below at title 4.
data.tar - /data partition - tar archive
All user data is stored here, including apps and user definable settings. This is what gets wiped when you do a recovery by pushing menu+power.
system.tar - /system partition - tar archive
System data, drivers and apps, including Android OS itself (except kernel). Certainly the most interesting part for the average modder
3. Editing system.tar and data.tar:
This might be the bulk of your modding, and most probably what will be most visible to the end user.
I very strongly suggest that you use a Linux system to edit these files. If you use Windows, file permissions will not be saved! If Windows is your main OS, simply install a VM host such as VirtualBox and install your fav Linux distro inside it. Most of them will have an Archive Manager with a GUI and will certainly support TAR. Even without a GUI, you can use "tar" and "untar" commands from a terminal to unpack and repack these files. When you are on Linux, TAR files will preserve file ownership and file permissions. This can be very crucial in your modding.
For modders who are new to Linux, I can recommend Ubuntu. It's very user friendly and easy to use in my opinion.
When you are done editing system.tar and data.tar copy them to your Windows box and drop and them to firmware-recovery file within 7-zip file manager.
4. Unpack, Edit and Repack ramdisk.img:
Now we are on to more serious stuff ramdisk.img consists of a 64 byte U-Boot header, followed by a gzip compressed ramdisk cpio image. So we need to strip the first 64 bytes, and use gunzip to extract it to a folder. After making the changes in the folder, we need apply cpio+gzip compression to the folder and add the 64 byte u-boot header again. You will need to use Linux and install the mkimage tool for these operations.
Here's the command to install mkimage tool in Ubuntu:
Code:
sudo apt-get install uboot-mkimage
It sounds complicated, but no worries, I have some shell scripts that can do all that for you! Thanks to leeh33 from Techknow for the scripts below:
unpack_ramdisk.sh
Code:
mkdir ramdisk
cd ramdisk
dd if=../ramdisk.img bs=64 skip=1 of=ramdisk.gz
gzip -dc ramdisk.gz | cpio -idmv
rm ramdisk.gz
repack_ramdisk.sh
Code:
cd ramdisk
find . | cpio -o -H newc -C 512 | gzip -n > ../ramdisk.cpio.gz
cd ..
mkimage -A ARM -O Linux -T ramdisk -C none -a 0x41000000 -e 0x41000000 -n hRamdisk -d ramdisk.cpio.gz ramdisk.img
rm ramdisk.cpio.gz
Create the scripts above using a text editor or download the attachment to this post and put the scripts together with your ramdisk.img file in a new folder. Executing unpack_ramdisk.sh will create a folder named ramdisk and extract the ramdisk contents here. You can edit e.g. init.rc in this folder, or add a static bootlogo. To add a custom bootlogo create a initlogo.rle image file by following this guide: http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/android-tablet-hacking/438-how-setup-static-bootlogo-before-animated-boot-animation.html Then place the resulting initlogo.rle file directly in the ramdisk directory.
After you are done editing the ramdisk folder, simply run repack_ramdisk.sh and your new ramdisk.img will be created, replacing the old one. Copy the ramdisk.img file to your Windows box again and drop it to firmware-recovery file within 7-zip file manager.
That's it, you have a custom ROM now! Please feel free to ask questions or correct me if you think I have any errors in the info above.
Happy Modding!!!
Tolga

Big problem about my device...
Thank you for this useful post!
I have seen a good knowledge about these devices(flytouch 3) and decided to post my question here:
I have a big problem! I used IUW Burning tool to flash my device. my device is:
SuperPad III (As box says)
Model: ANDR P1001
I decided to try tim's custom rom. It doesn't work. After restarting the device, screen become black (There was no connection
with screen, it was not turned on). The device had vibration when I pressed power button. It continued vibrating periodically(like it was restarting).
After that I flashed my device using IUW with most likely firmware, but during the process I FORGOT TO CHOOSE userdata.img FILE!
Now the device can't even communicate with pc.
OTG method is not working. The device no more vibrates at start up! At motherboard led is lighting when pressing power button.So IS MY DEVICE DEAD? Or is there any solution in this situation(Alternative communication, or whatever...)

[Q]How can I extra the system.img file

Can dev teach me ..
How can I extra the system.img file under windows 7 OS.

dickluo said:
Can dev teach me ..
How can I extra the system.img file under windows 7 OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will need the android SDK and adb.
You can either do this through the terminal app on the phone or by using adb...
With adb:
From windows command line, and the phone connected via usb.
adb shell
su
cat /dev/block/system > /sdcard/system.img
If you use the terminal, you run the same commands as above, except the adb command.
To get the file on your hard drive, run this from the windows command prompt:
adb pull /sdcard/system.img .
Jim
Sent from my MB865 using xda premium

EDIT- lol, Jim and I had two different perspectives on your question . Are you asking how to create a system.img based off of your current /system, or are you asking how to extract an .img you already have and set up a working directory for ROM building?
Under Win7? Good luck with that. The system.img contains a filesystem that Windows doesn't natively support. You can use an app like Ext2Read to open and extract .img's, but if you do that all the symlinking will get messed up because Windows filesystems don't support symlinks. Also, Ext2Read might freeze or not fully extract the image just because of compatibility issues.
I highly recommend you use VirtualBox or set up a dual-boot with a Linux OS like Ubuntu. From there, you can install the ROM Kitchen which makes building ROMs a lot easier. It will let you set up a working directory based off of a system .img, and it detects all symlinks and adds them to the updater-script.

cogeary said:
EDIT- lol, Jim and I had two different perspectives on your question . Are you asking how to create a system.img based off of your current /system, or are you asking how to extract an .img you already have and set up a working directory for ROM building?
Under Win7? Good luck with that. The system.img contains a filesystem that Windows doesn't natively support. You can use an app like Ext2Read to open and extract .img's, but if you do that all the symlinking will get messed up because Windows filesystems don't support symlinks. Also, Ext2Read might freeze or not fully extract the image just because of compatibility issues.
I highly recommend you use VirtualBox or set up a dual-boot with a Linux OS like Ubuntu. From there, you can install the ROM Kitchen which makes building ROMs a lot easier. It will let you set up a working directory based off of a system .img, and it detects all symlinks and adds them to the updater-script.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks cogeary .
I need the ext2read to explorer the *.img file and it can extra anyone file from *.img to my disk.
And can I use the *.apk from other *.img to create/use on my phone/system.

dickluo said:
Thanks cogeary .
I need the ext2read to explorer the *.img file and it can extra anyone file from *.img to my disk.
And can I use the *.apk from other *.img to create/use on my phone/system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sometimes. You can probably use apps like the alarm clock or browser that come from a different firmware, but don't try using framework files (like framework-res, systemui, etc) and important apps (like the dialer or phone) from different firmwares.

[GUIDE] How to extract, create or edit android adb backups

What is an android adb backup?
An adb backup is a file with ab extension, generated by android's backup manager when we request it via adb shell. This allows you to backup some data of the phone, but is not a replacement of a clockworkmod backup:
- Java 7 or higher is required because of SYNC_FLUSH mode for the Deflater.
- If the backup contains apk+data for an app, restore will work. If contains only the data, you must install the app first on the device and then restore. Installing the app later won't work.
- Some apps include a policy where the apk is never backed up even if specified.
- Inside an ab file is a tar file, which contains files and folders in a certain order. You have you respect that order, which is not necessarily alphabetical like tar does by default. Such order is listed in "Full local backup infrastructure".
- Inside the tar file, directories must not have trailing slash, for that reason pax, star or equivalent has to be used.
- There are some bugs present in the android source code.
- 'adb backup' or 'adb restore' are pretty slow, between 1 and 2.6 MBps.
- The adb backups (usually with .ab extension) can be password protected or not. If the device is encrypted this is a must and has to be the same used for the device.
- Star is recommended instead of pax, which supports path length only up to 100 characters, so will fail in some cases. This usually happens with browsers history.
- ADB backups are not a replacement for a Nandroid backup. The whole /data partition is not backed up, only a part of it. Also, other partitions like /system, /preload, /cache, modem, RIL, efs, kernel or recovery are never backed up because are not user data. This is to prevent issue when restoring on a different device. It has also the biggest
- If you have the device encrypted with a password, you must use that particular one for backup creation and restore. You can't create a backup without password or a different one in that particular case, or if you try to restore will fail.
- star for cygwin for windows is attached (move it to C:\cygwin\bin\star.exe) since there is no package available. It can be compiled from the schily (ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/schily/).
- The best way to test if an adb backup has errors, is to convert it to tar and then check.advantage that doesn't require root to operate, so is totally compatible with stock roms, locked bootloaders and device encryption.
- There's also a bash script called adb-split.sh that creates individual adb backups for each recognized app from the full one, so you can restore apps individually. Same encryption is preserved to them, if any.
You can use java or perl, although with perl can be more complicated because requires downloading some modules from cpan and some ssl headers.
To know more information about types of android backups:
[Guide] Types of Android backups
Software needed
The entire process can be done from Windows, but is better to use a unix-like operating system, like Linux, OS X or BSD, since we should extract the files on a filesystem that preservers file permissions and owners and repack the tar archive. Furthermore some tools like star are easier to get for linux. In such cases, using Virtualbox or VMWare Workstation is highly recommended. Using Windows should work in any case whatsoever.
Cygwin
Preferably 32 bits: has more packages and is less prone to errors. Furthermore, the star for cygwin attached is 32 bits.
Java 7 or higher
Java 7 or OpenJDK 7 (more builds here)
Oracle Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files 7 if you are going to work with password encrypted backups.
You need to install the files local_policy.jar and US_export_policy.jar under jre's lib/security folder, for example:
- For Windows:
C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_09\jre\lib\security\
C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\lib\security\
C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.7.0_07\jre\lib\security\
C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\lib\security\
- For Linux or BSD:
/usr/local/jdk1.7/jre/lib/security/
/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-*/jre/lib/security/
/usr/local/openjdk7/jre/lib/security/
- For OS X:
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_09.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/security/
Perl
Perl is available for several operating systems
libssl or openssl headers. If you are using Linux or Cygwin is much more easier
cpan modules required by use functions
pax or star
pax is an archiving utility that compresses in ustar by default. In this case is extremely useful because stores directories without trailing slash. Is available for all operating systems, and in windows can be installed via cygwin's setup.exe or download a native version like gnuwin32 (sometimes available via bsdtar with pax option). pax doesn't work when paths are more than 100 characters lenght, so I recommend star instead.
star allows storing directories without trailing slash. You can get the ubuntu version 1.5 here. For Windows you can use Cygwin's version included.
Android Backup Extractor
Android Backup Extractor is the java application that does all the job. It includes the perl scripts.
How it works, better with an example
I will use an example to demonstrate how it works, with java version. If you like to use perl, just grab the perl scripts and is nearly the same.
This is extracted from the readme file, and will extract a whole adb backup and repack only the data for the game Grand Theft Auto III for android.
1) Convert the original adb backup to tar format:
Code:
java -jar abe.jar unpack nexus7.ab nexus7.tar <password>
2) Extract the contents of the tar archive. This should be done on a filesystem where the permissions of the files inside the tar are preserved, for example using linux, mac or bsd. Up to two folders may appear, apps and shared:
Code:
tar -xvf nexus7.tar
3) Make a list of all the contents of the original archive in the order they are archived:
Code:
tar -tf nexus7.tar > nexus7.list
4) Create a new list only with the files and folders you want, in proper order. For example for the GTA 3 (you can try savegames instead of all data):
Code:
cat nexus7.list | grep com.rockstar.gta3 > gta3.list
5) Create the new tar archive. The directories stored on tar shouldn't contain trailing slashes, so I use pax or star instead of tar. Pax works also if paths are up to 100 of lenght:
Code:
cat gta.list | pax -wd > gta3.tar
OR
Code:
star -c -v -f gta3.tar -no-dirslash list=gta3.list
6) Create the adb backup from the tar archive. Password is optional:
Code:
java -jar abe.jar pack gta3.tar gta3.ab <password>
Note: if the backup is not encrypted zlib can be used instead for both unpack and pack the ab archive:
- Quick unpacking:
Code:
dd if=nexus7.ab bs=24 skip=1 | openssl zlib -d > nexus7.tar
- Quick packing:
Code:
dd if=nexus7.ab bs=24 count=1 of=gta3.ab ; openssl zlib -in gta3.tar >> gta3.ab
Split an Android backup
Use Android Backup Splitter (is a shell script). Works on Cygwin too:
sh adb-split.sh backup.ab [password if needed]
Resulting files go in app-ab folder
# ADB Backup Splitter:
#
# This bash script utility generates an adb backup for each item
# on apps/ folder. That equals to generating an adb backup for
# each app.
#
# shared/0 and shared/1 (sdcards) are ignored, so that means that
# external data and OBB files, although may be backed up, may not
# be restored. For doing so backup the folder Android of the sdcards.
# Creating a backup with -shared flag has know issues (corruption)
# so is not recommended. Future releases of this script may add
# the option to automatically detect things from sdcards inside
# the adb backup file.
#
# This script works on Cygwin also, and in general where star does.
#
# There may be apps in the backup that don't include the apk. In that
# particular case, the data won't be restored, so the individual backup
# is generated for testing purposes only. Installing the apk afterwards won't work.
# There is generated an html file called apk-missing.html so you can open it and
# install all applications from Play Store on any of your devices.
Patch apps to allow adb backup
Some apps specify in the AndroidManifest.xml android:allowBackup="false" so it won't be backed up by adb backup. If you have root and use Titanium Backup or CWM or TWRP they will do the job, but if you don't want root the only solution is to modify the apk to edit that string. Read here how to do that and the pros and cons:
[GUIDE] How to enable adb backup for any app changing android:allowBackup
Links
Android Backup Splitter (@ Sourceforge)
Android Backup Extractor (@ Sourceforge)
Android Backup Extractor (@ GitHub)
Documentation at Blogspot
Full local backup infrastructure
[Guide] Types of Android backups
Backing Up Android Games
Titanium Backup Decrypter
Perl scripts to encrypt/decrypt adb backup files
[GUIDE] Full Phone Backup without Unlock or Root
[GUIDE] Internal Memory Data Recovery - Yes We Can!
[Q] [adb] backup not working for Temple Run
Related adb backup and restore bugs:
Issue 55860: adb backup skips the apk for certain apps and doesn't prompt for download when restoring
Issue 48126: device adb connecting to localhost adbd cannot execute commands anymore since 4.2.2 (error device offline)
Issue 3254: adb shell doesn't return exit code of program
Issue 53065: Debugging via ADB stopping the onClick action on ImageView widget
Issue 53668: ADB : An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host
Issue 54781: adb install: single quotes in filenames cause quoting issues
Issue 55173: (Game) Offroad Legends does not detect obb when restored via adb restore
Issue 55178: (Game) Carmageddon Promo does not detect obb when restored via adb restore
Issue 28303: adb backup doesn't respect -noshared flag
Issue 32830: adb restore errors not displayed on device
Issue 34311: Galaxy Nexus gets stuck when restoring adb backup
Issue 25780: BackupManager causes reboot when BackupAgent missing
Issue 40691: ab backup and restore Ski Safari does not restore saved data
Issue 16286: Restoration of phone not working properly
Issue 39014: Nexus 7 adb restore freezes when restoring udk.android.reader
Warning about Helium (Carbon): helium backups are just android adb backups that are not compressed with Java Deflater. It means they were created with the option static final boolean COMPRESS_FULL_BACKUPS = false.
A normal adb restore should work.

Great guide, and can confirm that it does work!
I managed to use this method to restore my angry birds data from a Froyo phone (HTC Desire), to a Jelly Bean phone (HTC One X+). This is no easy task since you cannot use adb backup/restore on Froyo, but you can use adb pull, and you can't use adb push on Jelly Bean, but you can use adb backup/restore. Just in case anyone is looking to do the same, here is the process I used (requires having adb up and running but does not require root)...
As the adb backup function doesn't work on Froyo, I had to use adb pull to grab the angry birds data files (highscores.lua and settings.lua). Then, making sure that you have angry birds installed on the jelly bean phone and have played the first level, use the adb backup command to backup just the angry birds app. You can then use scandiuns guide to extract a tar file from the backup file, and then extract the "app" folder from the tar file.
Once this is done, you will find the highscores.lua and settings.lua files in the apps/com.rovio.angrybirds/f directory. Replace these two files with your original ones that you pulled from the old device. Then package up the app folder using the guide. Then just use adb restore to restore the modified backup file to your new device, and you should have all your old scores restored!
Hope that helps and thanks to scandiun for the great guide! :good:

cn198 said:
Great guide, and can confirm that it does work!
I managed to use this method to restore my angry birds data from a Froyo phone (HTC Desire), to a Jelly Bean phone (HTC One X+). This is no easy task since you cannot use adb backup/restore on Froyo, but you can use adb pull, and you can't use adb push on Jelly Bean, but you can use adb backup/restore. Just in case anyone is looking to do the same, here is the process I used (requires having adb up and running but does not require root)...
As the adb backup function doesn't work on Froyo, I had to use adb pull to grab the angry birds data files (highscores.lua and settings.lua). Then, making sure that you have angry birds installed on the jelly bean phone and have played the first level, use the adb backup command to backup just the angry birds app. You can then use scandiuns guide to extract a tar file from the backup file, and then extract the "app" folder from the tar file.
Once this is done, you will find the highscores.lua and settings.lua files in the apps/com.rovio.angrybirds/f directory. Replace these two files with your original ones that you pulled from the old device. Then package up the app folder using the guide. Then just use adb restore to restore the modified backup file to your new device, and you should have all your old scores restored!
Hope that helps and thanks to scandiun for the great guide! :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried similar attempt to restore my save of another game but that doesn't work.
How did you replace the files in the .tar file? I am using 7z to replace the .tar file but nothing happen after i restored.
Thanks.

ball3t said:
I have tried similar attempt to restore my save of another game but that doesn't work.
How did you replace the files in the .tar file? I am using 7z to replace the .tar file but nothing happen after i restored.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read the guide. 7z is not compatible, you have to use star or equivalent and meet the requirements.

scandiun said:
Read the guide. 7z is not compatible, you have to use star or equivalent and meet the requirements.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
star
star is required since GNU Tar does not allow storing directories without trailing slash. You can get the ubuntu version 1.5 here. For windows or Cygwin I haven't found it yet, if exists.
Because i am using windows, so does it mean that i couldn't modify the .tar file in any way?
thanks.

ball3t said:
Because i am using windows, so does it mean that i couldn't modify the .tar file in any way?
thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, from windows you can use pax. You can download it from cygwin's setup.exe. I've updated the guide, see the step 5.

scandiun said:
Yes, from windows you can use pax. You can download it from cygwin's setup.exe. I've updated the guide, see the step 5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it worked!!
thank you so much.

Maybe I'm missing something.
I've installed Java, ran cygwins setup.exe and I think it installed everything. Also downloaded the Android Backup Extractor. I try running a windows command prompt with:
java -jar abe.jar unpack nexus7.ab nexus7.tar
All I get is "java is not an internal or external command". I'm running the command prompt in the android backup extractor folder. Does everything have to be in the same folder? Where do I dump everything?

AAhrens said:
Maybe I'm missing something.
I've installed Java, ran cygwins setup.exe and I think it installed everything. Also downloaded the Android Backup Extractor. I try running a windows command prompt with:
java -jar abe.jar unpack nexus7.ab nexus7.tar
All I get is "java is not an internal or external command". I'm running the command prompt in the android backup extractor folder. Does everything have to be in the same folder? Where do I dump everything?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably java is not in your path, try
Code:
which java
It should result something like
Code:
$ which java
/cygdrive/c/Windows/system32/java
Add Java to the Windows Path
Then restart cygwin

Omg omg omg! Thanks for the guide you just saved my ass, i love you!!!!!

scandiun said:
2) Extract the contents of the tar archive. This should be done on a filesystem where the permissions of the files inside the tar are preserved, for example using linux, mac or bsd. Up to two folders may appear, apps and shared:
Code:
tar -xvf nexus7.tar
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I'd like to try this out on a Windows 7 (virtual) machine. All software installed an clear what to do. But how do I manage to preserve the file permissions? Does Cygwin take care of that?
Thanks

ttv said:
Hi,
I'd like to try this out on a Windows 7 (virtual) machine. All software installed an clear what to do. But how do I manage to preserve the file permissions? Does Cygwin take care of that?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't preserve the exact permissions because of the operating system and the filesystem. While permissions will be somewhat similar the owner will change completely. While android has the owner encoded by a number windows will use your windows username. I made simple modifications of backups on windows and luckily worked, but of course can't promise you that will apply for all the cases.
If you know how to use virtual machines, why just don't use linux / unix? For example if you use PC-BSD or Linux Mint you can download directly the Virtualbox image and then share a folder or use ftp server.
http://virtualboximages.com/LinuxMint+14+KDE+Desktop+32bit+Virtual+Appliance

scandiun said:
If you know how to use virtual machines, why just don't use linux / unix? For example if you use PC-BSD or Linux Mint you can download directly the Virtualbox image and then share a folder or use ftp server.
http://virtualboximages.com/LinuxMint+14+KDE+Desktop+32bit+Virtual+Appliance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the answer.
I didn't understand the bit about sharing a folder on Unix before, but now I think it clicks.... The Linux/Unix VM is only used to share a folder in which I can extract the Android backup from my Windows machine right? So that way I can still use the installed software and drivers for my Nexus 4 on the Windows machine. Do I understand this correctly?
If that's the case I am going to try right away. Otherwise I have to make the Nexus 4 software installation work on the Unix/Linux VM and that will take a lot more time I think.....

ttv said:
Thanks for the answer.
I didn't understand the bit about sharing a folder on Unix before, but now I think it clicks.... The Linux/Unix VM is only used to share a folder in which I can extract the Android backup from my Windows machine right? So that way I can still use the installed software and drivers for my Nexus 4 on the Windows machine. Do I understand this correctly?
If that's the case I am going to try right away. Otherwise I have to make the Nexus 4 software installation work on the Unix/Linux VM and that will take a lot more time I think.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I mean to access from linux the folder you share in windows, but then remember to copy the backup inside linux to extract it there, to preserve permissions.
You have the option to share folders in Virtualbox and VMWare Workstation. In case you use virtualbox, make sure the guest has Guest Additions installed. Some virtualbox images already come with it.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}

Well I got the java command to work, but now the "cat" command will not work? Your link to add java to the path worked for the latter, but how do I get 'cat' to work?

AAhrens said:
Well I got the java command to work, but now the "cat" command will not work? Your link to add java to the path worked for the latter, but how do I get 'cat' to work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What exact error are you getting?

scandiun said:
What exact error are you getting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Cat is not an internal or external command"

AAhrens said:
"Cat is not an internal or external command"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What shell are you using? cat is included on any default linux installation.

scandiun said:
What shell are you using? cat is included on any default linux installation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows 8

On Cygwin you have cat and the other utilities you have to install them from the setup.